Quibim secures €8M for radiology AI platform that detects COVID-19 and other diseases early

Tags: Medical ImagingPrecision Medicine
Quibim investment round
Ángel Alberich-Bayarri at Quibim Headquarters

 

Allows early detection of COVID-19 by radiologists through imaging biomarkers and is the main AI platform for screening for the virus across Europe.

Investment will enable Quibim to expand range of algorithms and high-value components available through its AI-based radiology platform

Valencia, Spain – July 21, 2020. Medtech company Quibim has closed €8M in new financing in a seed funding round co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners and Adara Ventures, with participation by Apex Ventures, Partech, Crista Galli Ventures and existing shareholders, including Tech Transfer UPV, managed by Clave Capital and Juan Roig.

Quibim specialises in radiomics, the extraction of standardised, quantitative information from medical imaging data sets using artificial intelligence (AI). Quibim’s medical image postprocessing and extraction of imaging biomarkers enables hospitals and pharmaceutical companies to detect diseases early and systematically.

Quibim has already launched more than 20 algorithms for a range of conditions including cancer, Alzheimer’s, osteoarthritis and liver disease. It has recently launched chest X-ray and CT scan products for COVID-19. Quibim Precision®, its proprietary platform, extracts and quantifies disease-specific biomarkers from medical images with ultra-high accuracy. Its products are used in over 70 hospitals and 11 clinical trials across the world, with 600,000 analyses and 6.5 million images processed to date.

Quibim was founded by Dr. Ángel Alberich-Bayarri and Prof. Luis Martí-Bonmatí, two innovators at the forefront of medical imaging. They established the process for the development of biomarkers, adopted in 2013 by the European Society of Radiology (ESR) as the official industry standard. They again set a benchmark when, in March 2020, Quibim became the main AI platform for screening for COVID-19 across Europe. Shortly after, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), with more than 52,000 members from 153 countries, joined the initiative with the goal of creating a global medical repository of COVID-19 cases, with the European arm running on Quibim Precision.

By incorporating AI technologies, Quibim also improves the performance and workflow of radiology departments. The company is launching its qp-Suites product family, designed to support radiologists by centralising the essential tools for clinical diagnosis in one platform, increasing operational efficiency.

Angel Alberich Bayarri, founder and CEO of Quibim, said, “Quibim is now at a scale-up point ready to grow internationally while maintaining great science at the core of our mission. This latest round of funding will be used to boost the AI platform, our available algorithms and high-value components, to provide a seamless, all-in-one solution supporting healthcare providers.”

Our new investors will open opportunities for us in new markets and help us to strengthen our brand internationally. We will be able to promote our new prostate, musculoskeletal and oncology solutions and increase sales globally, by expanding our workforce over the coming year.”

Pierre Socha, Partner, Amadeus Capital Partners, added: “We are excited by the potential of radiomics to improve disease detection and enable precision treatments guided by imaging biomarkers. Quibim’s all-in-one platform is the answer that radiologists have been waiting for and we look forward to helping them grow internationally while continuing the fight against COVID-19 and other life-threatening conditions.

Quibim’s rapid adoption is an indicator of how innovative doctors and researchers are eager to have access to and exploit AI technology and methods that can automatically recognise complex patterns in imaging data, to get quantitative assessments and improve the service they provide”, said Rocio Pillado, partner at Adara Ventures.

Legal advisers on the investment were Garrigues and Araoz&Rueda.

About Quibim

Quibim is a medtech company specialized in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and image processing technologies applied to the development of imaging biomarkers in the medical imaging field. The company has a proprietary software platform QUIBIM Precision and AI algorithms for quantitative imaging biomarkers used by hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and R&D centres.

Quibim Precision image analysis platform has received CE Mark certification as a Class IIa Medical Device, including its imaging biomarker analysis algorithms, the zero-footprint DICOM viewer and its platform hosting these components and medical imaging data.

About Amadeus Capital Partners

Amadeus Capital Partners is a global technology investor. Since 1997, the firm has raised over $1bn for investment and used it to back over 150 companies. With vast experience and a great network, Amadeus’ team of investors and entrepreneurs share a passion for the transformative power of technology.

Pioneering businesses we’ve backed include cyber security vendor ForeScout (NASDAQ:FSCT); Graphcore, innovators in intelligent microprocessors; IVF genetic testing company, IgenomixIndiaMART, the B2B online marketplace (NSE: INDIAMART) and speech recognition company VocalIQ (acquired by Apple). Find us at www.amadeuscapital.com and @AmadeusCapital.

About Adara Ventures

Founded in 2005, Adara Ventures is a Venture Capital firm managing over €175 million in capital and dedicated to investments in European Deep Tech companies addressing enterprise (B2B) markets. Adara invests primarily in the early stages of development with a particular focus on Cybersecurity, Horizontal and Vertical Data/AI solutions, Cloud computing, and Enterprise/Industrial software. For more information, visit www.adaravp.com and follow us @Adaraventures.

About Apex Ventures

APEX Digital Health, the 2nd fund under the APEX umbrella, invests in promising early-stage companies in the healthcare sector. APEX Ventures is a European venture capital firm with headquarters in Vienna and Frankfurt, focusing on deep-tech companies. The team is not only acting as investors but also as company builders with a mission to support the most talented start-up teams in building global market leaders.

About Partech

With a portfolio of almost 180 companies spread across 30 countries in Europe, the US, Africa, and Asia, Partech has been one of the leading international investors helping visionary founders for almost 40 years. The Partech team – made up of both former entrepreneurs and executives from 15 different countries – brings capital, experience, strategic support, and networks to entrepreneurs at every stage of development: seed, venture, and growth. With over €1.5B under management, Partech invests from €200K to €50M in B2B and B2C technologies reshaping industries. Companies backed by Partech have completed more than 21 IPOs and more than 50 strategic M&A transactions valued over $100M.

See Partech’s current portfolio: https://partechpartners.com/companies/

About Crista Galli Ventures

Crista Galli Ventures is an evergreen healthtech fund, investing at seed and series A. The fund is backed by a Danish Family office and has offices in London and Copenhagen. Led by Dr. Fiona Pathiraja, Crista Galli Ventures is one of the only healthtech funds on the continent to have a senior physician as managing partner. The firm’s portfolio companies are based across Europe and the UK, including deep-tech radiology companies Contextflow and SmartReporting.